Includes Bill Watterson's collaborated cartoons! Are you tired of America's broken politics, tired partisan bickering, and really lame newspaper comics? Well, Stephan Pastis can't help you with the first two. But he, along with Rat, Pig, and the rest of the animal crew from Pearls Before Swine, voted the Most Reprehensible Comic Strip in the Continental U.S. by the League of Easily Offended and Unfunny Citizens*, are doing their best to make the American comic great again. In I'm Only in This for Me, the Pearls gang dares to tell the hard truths that the country needs to hear: the importance of prioritizing cheese over everything else, the sadly ignored capacity of bears to solve all of life's problems, and the crucial Recognition Gap between women in bars and semi-obscure cartoonists with delusions of grandeur.   But beneath all the selfishness, absurdity, bungling crocs, and bazooka-wielding ducks, Rat, Pig, Goat, and Zebra continue to find that friendship can make life warmer, humor can make stupidity less annoying, and cheese really does make everything way, way better.   Lastly, this collection features the triumphant return of a legendary comics icon: Stephan Pastis! (And also some weirdo named Bill Watterson.)      *Not an actual group or award

The Pearls Before Swine gang is back in this treasury-sized edition, complete with Stephan Pastis's insightful and entertaining annotations.True to Pearls Before Swine tradition, the latest cartoon collection brims with Stephan Pastis’s cynical humor, sharp wit, and clever commentary. Always together—and sometimes with their fellow funny-page characters—the regular Pearls clan weighs in on everything from modern technology to current events to human nature. All the members of the skewed gang are here as Zebra engages in a never-ending war of neighborly hate with the Crocs. As always, Goat offers a voice of reason amid the ongoing chaos that Pastis creates, either from behind the pen or as a character within the strip itself. Pastis’s latest collection is sure to add to the funny-page phenomenon, giving Pearls fans more of what they know and love: satirical logic and hilarious wit. Includes all cartoons from the collections Breaking Stephan and King of the Comics.

Take a flight of fancy with the Pearls Before Swine crew in their third AMP! Comics for Kids collection! Hokey lessons and ancient textbooks are no match for a good Rockitt Shipp, kids. The poorly behaved cast of Pearls Before Swine invites you to a magical world filled with silly talking animals and mostly bald humans. There’s Rat, a master of evil. Pig, who seems to be made to suffer—it’s his lot in life. And while the braindead Crocs unsuccessfully hunt poor Zebra, the wise (and noted loser) Goat looks on in disapproving horror. So take a homework break and prep the hyperdrive for light speed. . . . It’s another hilarious Pearls kids collection!

 The Pearls Before Swine crew is back in their second collection of cartoons for the middle-grade crowd!  Always witty and clever, and sometimes irreverent, Pearls Before Swine's sarcastic take on life appeals to fans of all ages. In this second collection of cartoons specially chosen for young readers, the troupe of characters is back to entertain with dark humor and off-the-wall puns. Know-it-all Rat is always at the center of the action, accompanied by slow-witted Pig who is innocently oblivious to most of Rat's jabs. Rounded out with high-browed Goat, the mild and vulnerable Zebra, and the hilariously inept Crocs, the cast is ready to provide hours of reading fun.

True to Pearls Before Swine tradition, Sometimes You Just Gotta Draw a Cover with Your Left Hand brims with Stephan Pastis's cynical humor, sharp wit, and clever commentary. Always together--and sometimes with their fellow funny-page characters--the regular Pearls clan weighs in on everything from modern technology to current events to human nature.

Picturing daily and Sunday strips that ran between summer 2009 and spring 2010, all the members of the skewed gang are here as Zebra engages in a never-ending war of neighborly hate with the Crocs, who have since sent Larry back to school, where he proves to be the dumbest beer-drinking student ever to enter the fourth grade. As always, Goat offers a voice of reason amid the ongoing chaos that Pastis creates, either from behind the pen or as a character within the strip itself.

In its tenth year of publication, Pearls Before Swine now appears in 600 newspapers worldwide, boasts an ever-growing online readership, and is a two-time winner of the National Cartoonists Society's Best Newspaper Comic Strip award. Pastis's Sometimes You Just Gotta Draw a Cover with Your Left Hand is sure to add to the funny-page phenomenon, for it gives Pearls fans more of what they know and love: satirical logic and hilarious wit.

Stephan Pastis has done it again with Pearls Sells Out: A Pearls Before Swine Treasury. This edgy comic is the perfect collection of insight and observation on humanity's pitiful plight as seen by an arrogant rat, a half-wit pig, and their insane entourage. Pearls Sells Out gives fans their much-needed dose of humor, wit and biting sarcasm. The book also features thoughts and sly comments from Pastis about the strips in running commentary throughout the book.

"There's an artful, edgy rebellion being waged in the funny pages, and one of its brightest revolutionaries is Stephan Pastis." --Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"The cartoon Pearls Before Swine is written by a psychopath." --reader complaint, Wichita Eagle

"There's an artful, edgy rebellion being waged in the funny pages, and one of its brightest revolutionaries is Stephan Pastis." --Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"The cartoon Pearls Before Swine is written by a psychopath." --reader complaint, Wichita Eagle

This collection of Pearls Before Swine makes a happy return to home and hearth as only these scamps can. An iconic portrait that captures the essence of modern life, Pearls Before Swine is a heartwarming American original.

A gifted storyteller with a sick sense of humor, Stephan Pastis is rapidly becoming a master of the cartoon art form. His pearls of wisdom are sly and subversive, smart and shocking. And incredibly funny.

It's a jungle out there. The only way to survive is with friends, a thick skin, and, a good dose of cynicism.

* A sense of humor, along with a little animal instinct, is just what The Saturday Evening Pearls offers.

* Pearls Before Swine was named Best Comic Strip in 2004, and again in 2007 by the National Cartoonists Society.

The Fab Four of the funny pages come together again-this time in their first book treasury.

Rat, Pig, Zebra, and Goat, the central characters of Pearls Before Swine, are back in Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic, the first Pearls Before Swine treasury-supersized for your enjoyment.

But this is no ordinary cartoon treasury. Like the influential Beatles album that inspired the book's title, Sgt. Piggy is full of surprises. In addition to collecting all of the Pearls cartoons that appeared in BLTs Taste So Darn Good and This Little Piggy Stayed Home, cartoonist Stephan Pastis takes readers on a VIP backstage tour of one of the most successful comic strips in newspapers today.

In Sgt. Piggy, Pastis explains the genesis of Pearls (hint: it didn't begin at an artist's easel), why he was initially reluctant to show it to newspaper syndicates (and the surprising reason he changed his mind), the unexpected responses from readers to his work, and which Pearls strips worked and which ones didn't (and how he would have corrected the ones that didn't). The result is a rare and revealing glimpse into the world of Rat, Pig, Goat and Zebra. Full of humor and insight, sardonic asides and unexpected truths, Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic is a book that comics fans everywhere can enjoy anytime-even when they're 64!

Syndicated by United Feature Syndicate, Get Fuzzy appears in 250 newspapers, from the Los Angeles Times to the Detroit Free Press to the Philadelphia Enquirer. Darby Conley's first book, This Dog Is Not a Toy, sold more than 115,000 copies; his second book, Fuzzy Logic, more than 85,000.When he was a child, Darby Conley used to wonder what his beloved pooch was thinking. That curiosity led to his creation of the hilarious strip Get Fuzzy in 1999, which has rapidly become one of the most popular cartoons in newspaper syndication. Showcasing the relationship between Bucky, a temperamental cat with an attitude; the sweet and sensitive dog Satchel; and their mild-mannered human companion, Rob Wilco, Get Fuzzy has cornered the market on anthropomorphic antics.

Anyone who finds animals both amazing and amusing will find this new Get Fuzzy collection one of the most bitingly funny books ever printed.

Smart, sharp, and sometimes cynical, Pearls Before Swine is our fastest growing cartoon property.

Cartoonist Stephan Pastis offers Pearls Before Swine fans a slam dunk with When Pigs Fly. Relax courtside and witness all of the action inside this breakout collection. Teeming with sharp wit and thoughtful insight, When Pigs Fly offers Pearls fans and sports fanatics alike a book full of caustically nuanced strips that mock the flaws and shortcomings of human nature.

Starters for Team Pastis include Pig (but you can just call him Air) playing forward with Rat offering an assist. In the paint, Zebra and Guard Duck box out those foul-tempered Crocs who believe they are ready to wipe the court with our Pearls all-stars. Meanwhile, Goat attempts to lead the team to victory--if only they would listen.

With multiple honors as Best Comic Strip of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society, Pearls Before Swine boasts an international fan base that follows the strip in more than 500 newspapers worldwide. Catch the alley-oop action inside When Pigs Fly.

Luann 5/09/99.

The standard 4-frame comic strip is enlarged to approximately 4 x 12 inches.  Sizes vary in accordance with the size of the comic itself, but all are printed, centered, on acid-free, archival 11 x 17-inch paper.